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News Release
| Recommended Alternatives for K-61 Highway Enhancement Presented to Local Public Officials | Thursday, March 20, 2003
| HUTCHINSON – A Public Officials briefing was held March 14, 2003, to review K-61 Alternative Alignments from Hutchinson to Medora. About thirty Public Officials and about forty members of the public attended the meeting to listen to the Kansas Department of Transportation’s presentation and to provide comments on the recommendation.
Comments from the December 2002 public meetings asked that the study team review the alignments and conduct a more detailed assessment of properties that would be impacted. Many residents felt that inaccurate data was used to determine the numbers of the relocations.
The study team spent the past few months reviewing their evaluations and considering other options based on public comments. The corridor that was recommended at the December public meeting is still the recommended corridor. The study team compared right-of-way costs for the three corridors under consideration by looking at the following:
- The number of relocations in each corridor
- Amount of developed land in each corridor
- Amount of undeveloped land in each corridor
- The taxable value of the land and structures in each corridor
- The undeveloped land value in each corridor
- Estimated relocation costs in each corridor
After the presentation was completed, Public Officials and members of the public were encouraged to asked questions of the study team. "There were lots of good questions posed," said Corky Armstrong, KDOT Project Manager. "We appreciate everyone taking the time to give us their comments." Many of the questions from the audience challenged how the recommended alignment would improve safety and traffic on K-61. KDOT responded by explaining that a new four lane road would take much of the thru traffic off of the existing K-61, which will alleviate congestion and increase safety.
The handout of the alignment review that was presented at the meeting will be mailed in the next few weeks to everyone on the K-61 mailing list and it will also be placed on the website for review: www.k61enhancement.org.
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